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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
SECTION B
Spend about 1 hour on this section. Think carefully about the poems before you write your answer.
In the first of the following poems, ‘The Railway Modeller’, the narrator (Pugh) describes a man (her
husband) and his hobby. In the second, ‘The Railway Clerk’, a man expresses his feelings about his life and
work.
Write about both poems and their effect on you. Show how they are similar and how they are different.
You may write about each poem separately and then compare them, or make comparisons where appropriate
in your answer as a whole.
You may wish to include some or all of these points:
• the content of the poems – what they are about;
• the ideas the poets may have wanted us to think about;
• the mood or atmosphere of the poems;
• how they are written – words and phrases you find interesting, the way they are organised, and so on;
• your responses to the poems.
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The railway modeller
The Railway Clerk
He’s spent all week creating the best part
of a village; sculpting the paper strata
of its hills, painting them green, growing
small metal trees with a teased-out fluff
of foliage. Then he built half-timbered
card houses, secured them where they belonged
and stood back to be sure it was right.
It isn’t my fault.
I do what I’m told
But still I am blamed.
This year, my leave application
Was twice refused.
Every day there is so much work
And I don’t get overtime.
My wife is always asking for more money.
Money, money, where to get money?
My job is such, no one is giving bribe,
While other clerks are in fortunate position,
and no promotion even because I am not graduate.
Now he must add the people: so minute,
they take more work than anything. He uses
a make-up brush tapered to a hair
for touching their white plastic into life
with flesh-tones, bright splashes, uniform
blue and grey…. It takes hours to make
an individual, if it’s done with love,
but he doesn’t mind the time spent
in his shed, a sufficient universe,
and nothing brings a branch line alive
like people. Working down on the track,
picks raised, or waiting on a paper bench
for a train they can’t board, they turn
the scene to a frozen photograph.
It’s a shame he can’t, with all his love,
move the frame on…. The background radio
intrudes news headlines into his thought:
today in Parliament the talking fellows
were voting on whether to punish men
with death. His brush carefully strokes in
blond hair; perfects another passenger.
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk
I wish I was bird.
I am never neglecting my responsibility,
I am discharging it properly,
I am doing my duty,
But who is appreciating/
Nobody, I am telling you.
My desk is too small,
the fan is not repaired for two months,
three months.
I am living far off in Borivali,
My children are neglecting studies,
How long this can go on?
Nissam Ezekial
WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Sheenagh Pugh
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SECTION B
Spend about 1 hour on this section. Think carefully about the poems before you write your answer.
In the first of the following poems, ‘Looking into the Filed’, the narrator describes a moment in the life of a
farmer. In the second, ‘Hatching’, the narrator describes a moment of birth.
Write about both poems and their effect on you. Show how they are similar and how they are different.
You may write about each poem separately and then compare them, or make comparisons where appropriate
in your answer as a whole.
You may wish to include some or all of these points:
• the content of the poems – what they are about;
• the ideas the poets may have wanted us to think about;
• the mood or atmosphere of the poems;
• how they are written – words and phrases you find interesting, the way they are organised, and so on;
• your responses to the poems.
[20]
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Looking into the Field
Hatching
From the five corners of the field
they lift their heads and move towards him.
This is the man who brings food.
His collie presses against the window
of the Land Rover and leaves a nose-round watermark.
He walks to the four stiff legs of a dead sheep
and bends to grasp fistfuls of tight wool.
Lifting from his knees he pulls and rolls
the ewe upright, setting the legs kicking again.
Tubful of life, she bleats and waddles to new grass.
The field has been put to rights and as he walks back
his flock return to their grass and the first autumn leaves.
Four disappointed crows flap into the sky she’d
stared up through like a cloudy blue tunnel.
His night has come to an end and now he must break
The little sky which shielded him. He taps
Once and nothing happens. He tries again
And makes a mark like lightning. He must thunder,
Storm and shake and break a universe
Too small and safe. His daring beak does this.
Tony Curtis
And now he is out in a world of smells and spaces.
He shivers. Any air is wind to him.
He huddles under wings but does not know
He is already shaping feathers for
A lunge into the sky. His solo flight
Will bring the sun upon his back. He’ll bear it,
Carry it, learn the real winds, by instinct
Return for food and, larger than his mother,
Avid for air, harry her with his hunger.
Elizabeth Jennings
SECTION B
Spend about 1 hour on this section. Think carefully about the poems before you write your answer.
In the first of the following poems, ‘The Moth’s Plea’, the moth expresses its feelings about its life and identity. In
the second, ‘Weasels’, the narrator describes and expresses his feelings about weasels.
Write about both poems and their effect on you. Show how they are similar and how they are different.
You may write about each poem separately and then compare them, or make comparisons where appropriate in your
answer as a whole.
You may wish to include some or all of these points:
• the content of the poems – what they are about;
• the ideas the poets may have wanted us to think about;
• the mood or atmosphere of the poems;
• how they are written – words and phrases you find interesting, the way they are organised, and so on;
• your responses to the poems.
[20]
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk
WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
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The Moth’s Plea
Weasels
I am a disappointment
And much worse.
You hear a flutter, you expect a brilliance of wings,
Colours dancing, a bright
Flutter, but then you see
A brown, bedraggled creature
With a shamefaced, unclean look
Darting upon your curtains and clothes,
Fighting against the light.
I hate myself. It’s no wonder you hate me.
They are only scrap for a furrier
Or trimming for a lady’s wrap.
But before they end on a heap
They are awful in the fields and streams.
Red-brown and nine inches long.
They eat mice and moles and frogs;
Rooks, crows and owls are nothing to them.
Weasels will get through a bush or hedge
For thrush and blackbird eggs
And swim a mile when they sniff dead fish.
I meddle among your things,
I make a meal out of almost any cloth,
I hide in cupboards and scare
Any who catch me unaware.
I am your enemy – the moth.
My granddad saw one
Wipe out a granary of rats
And then look around to see
If he had missed any
Before he enjoyed his huge supper.
Once, in America, a hawk was found
With a weasel’s skull locked to its throat.
Even when chased by a fox
They may stop to kill a chicken.
Weasels like rabbits, too
And go deep into the dark burrows.
In Carmarthen they have hunted in packs
Scampering behind the poor scared hares
Lolloping in the moonlight.
They will also attack a man
If trapped – single and alone
They jump for the neck.
You try to keep me away
But I’m wily and when I do
Manage to hide, you chase me, beat me, put
Horrible-smelling balls to poison me.
Have you ever thought what it’s like to be
A parasite,
Someone who gives you a fright,
Who envies the rainbow colours of the bright
Butterflies who hover round flowers all day?
Oh please believe that I do understand how it feels
To be awake in and be afraid of the night.
Elizabeth Jennings Weasels will live anywhere smelly
Inside a maggoty sheep carcase
Or a rotted tree-stump,
A crumbled wall crevice or a fish hole
In the riverbank. Their innocent babies
Nest tight at the back of the holes.
John Tripp
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk